Flickr price increase
I received this note from Flickr explaining that the price for my Pro subscription would increase. I'm a bit torn on what to do. I like Flickr a lot and in the grand scheme of things £60 isn't a huge amount for unlimited storage of photos and videos. I'll probably reluctantly renew and give them one more year. He's the thing though, there have been no useful improvements to the web interface or the mobile app. There are a number of bugs still outstanding which are all well documented. This is especially disappointing as the Smugmug team have had over a year to implement these fixes. New features such as printing don't really benefit me in the slightest. The much promised improvements to communities haven't materialised. It's a shame that they couldn't give more over the past year to really get me excited about the future. I know Sumgmug have a philosophy of not taking on capital and having the finances in top shape, but sometimes this hurts innovation. Burning cash is no problem with a solid business case for growth. I worry that the lack of investment that is badly needed will be the death nail of Flickr.
With over 190GB on my account, I'm under no illusion I'm a 'heavy' Flickr user. I get that bills need to be paid, and I can afford to support Flickr. However I think I will decline and review in a year or two. I can always re-upload all my photos if I decide to come back. I'm not fussed about the views and favourite counts. While I appreciate them, all that is, is a historical number.
I'm not web developer, but I am a marketer. I also have a huge amount of experience in digital consumer subscriptions (toot toot!). Price increases like this without any incremental value are proven to increase churn and reduce average customer lifetime value. The cost of acquiring a new paid subscriber is so much more than keeping the existing, so screwing another $10 a year of out the existing user base might look good on paper, but when or if they churn from Flickr (and all the photos above 1k are deleted) it's going to cost a hell of a lot more to incentives them to come back.
That's my situation. If I don't renew, I'm probably gone for good.
Cheers and all the best
Flickr price increase
I received this note from Flickr explaining that the price for my Pro subscription would increase. I'm a bit torn on what to do. I like Flickr a lot and in the grand scheme of things £60 isn't a huge amount for unlimited storage of photos and videos. I'll probably reluctantly renew and give them one more year. He's the thing though, there have been no useful improvements to the web interface or the mobile app. There are a number of bugs still outstanding which are all well documented. This is especially disappointing as the Smugmug team have had over a year to implement these fixes. New features such as printing don't really benefit me in the slightest. The much promised improvements to communities haven't materialised. It's a shame that they couldn't give more over the past year to really get me excited about the future. I know Sumgmug have a philosophy of not taking on capital and having the finances in top shape, but sometimes this hurts innovation. Burning cash is no problem with a solid business case for growth. I worry that the lack of investment that is badly needed will be the death nail of Flickr.
With over 190GB on my account, I'm under no illusion I'm a 'heavy' Flickr user. I get that bills need to be paid, and I can afford to support Flickr. However I think I will decline and review in a year or two. I can always re-upload all my photos if I decide to come back. I'm not fussed about the views and favourite counts. While I appreciate them, all that is, is a historical number.
I'm not web developer, but I am a marketer. I also have a huge amount of experience in digital consumer subscriptions (toot toot!). Price increases like this without any incremental value are proven to increase churn and reduce average customer lifetime value. The cost of acquiring a new paid subscriber is so much more than keeping the existing, so screwing another $10 a year of out the existing user base might look good on paper, but when or if they churn from Flickr (and all the photos above 1k are deleted) it's going to cost a hell of a lot more to incentives them to come back.
That's my situation. If I don't renew, I'm probably gone for good.
Cheers and all the best